Brief review of my T43 experience so far...

[BoostedA4]

About 3-4 weeks ago I received a 2668-88U from IBM using EPP (would not have considered it otherwise). Specs:
-1.86 GHz
-512MB DDR2 (just ordered another 512 through IBM)
-x300 64MB
-40 GB 5400
-15" SXGA+

Overall impression: I love the very simplistic, all-black design on the T43. It is not flashy nor cheesy looking. It's very sleek and in my opinion very sexy. It is much thinner than I expected and feels quite solid. The backing on the screen has very little flex as well as the body as a whole.

Keyboard: Well, this is my first laptop but I am very impressed. My typing speed is certainly faster on this than with my desktop. I am now used to the keyboard and love it. It has great response and very little flex. I am a reasonable hard typer and the keyboard holds up great. The full size is awesome.

Screen. When I was searching for notebooks, one of the reasons I did not want an IBM was all the rap I heard in relation to their screens. What were people talking about? This 15" flexview with SXGA+ resolution is absolutely gorgeous. The viewing angles and brightness are amazing, I think I use around 70% brightness for all my tasks.

Speed. As soon as I got my T43 I deleted the IBM partition and merged it with the C:. I did a fresh install of XP. Then I proceeded to read online sites on tips and tweaks dealing with startup and background services. In addition to a few other tweaks with performance options I have this thing running so quickly. It boots in hardly any time and loads apps practically instantly I undervolted and use RMclock. I never knew how little processor speed is required to perform all the tasks I do. 1.86 GHz is hardly ever reached.

EDIT: Just to let you know how many processes I've elminiated, I am currently running only 22 processes and use about 120MB RAM

Temperature and noise: The main factor holding me back from the T43 and opting for the T42 was the whole heat and noise issue that T43 users had been reporting. Well, I don't know if it is a result of my undervolting, or just a better constructed model, but I have no heat nor noise issues. My right palm essentially never gets warm and my CPU temps hardly ever go above 42 degrees celsisus--not what I would call very warm. The fan noise is practically non-existant. If I put my ear to the fan I can hear a nice soft steady pur, and even that is only sometimes

[jfh]

Can you post a few more details? Specifically, which services did you eliminate (or which do you have left)?

What did you underclock it to?

How did you do a fresh XP install? Did you use media other than that generated from the T43?

[nimba]

Good work!

I just got my t41 and am very interested in eliminating some back ground processes. Could you give me some direction on doing so? thanks alot!

[stalin]

Temperature and noise:[/b] The main factor holding me back from the T43 and opting for the T42 was the whole heat and noise issue that T43 users had been reporting. Well, I don't know if it is a result of my undervolting, or just a better constructed model, but I have no heat nor noise issues. My right palm essentially never gets warm and my CPU temps hardly ever go above 42 degrees celsisus--not what I would call very warm. The fan noise is practically non-existant. If I put my ear to the fan I can hear a nice soft steady pur, and even that is only sometimes

Well, it is no surprise, actually. You've got a simple T43 model, what the others including me were complaining about were top of the line T43p models.

Now compare:
1.86Ghz to 2.13 Ghz
x300 to V3200

And the temperature hits 47-50C easily. Questions?

[odyssius]

Not really. I don't think your 2.13G CPU and advanced graphics card makes big difference...

[stalin]

And this also explains why some people get a quiet T43 (if you get a T43 with the heat disappation unit tied nicely with the GPU) while some people get a noisy one.

If this is the case, I would consider it a very serious problem and you may call me an optimist but IBM/Lenovo should call back such models...

PS: Unfortunately, I'm the owner of one

[jd2020]

I still believe that the noise of T43 is a bug. I think one of the user "JHaislet" here in this forum is into the right direction. He actually took apart the T43 and found the heat disappation of the Graphics chip is not good. The contact is loose...... and the sensor of the fan is very close to the graphic chip. And this explains why T43 is always blowing (hard) out cold air when the CPU temp is not very high.

I had a T30 with fan noise similar to my T43 (at lower fan speeds) but the T30 seems to blow much warmer air than the T43. This would seem to confirm your idea. Still the bottom under the track pad seems a bit warmer than the T30 got. My T43 CPU shows 50 degrees.

[jd2020]

BoostedA4,

Here are my observations based on my current T43, my prior T30, and a T42 (1.6Ghz) I just received.

- Noise is very subjective. "Loud" can depend on many factors (environment, reporter experience, ear sensitivity, etc.). My T43 fan operates at 2 or more speeds. When in slower/quieter mode, it is comparable to my T30 (and seems to blow cooler air). In higher mode its as loud as many desktop fans and louder than many laptops. My recent T42 (experience limited to 4 hrs while configuring it) is quiet. It makes virtually no sound.

- Empirically I can tell you that my T42 runs quieter than my T43, which is about the same or sometimes louder than my un-modified T30.

- IBM's Power Manager (which shows the green battery icon in the task bar) has options for tweaking/optimizing Performance, System Temperature, Fan Sound Level, and Battery Life. I am running this now and it seems to have lowered the fan sound. When I just adjusted the settings, the fan spun up blowing ambient temp air, and then settled back down. Odd.

- Also useful is Centrino Hardware Control, which seems to have functions similar to IBM's Power Manager, but it gives you much greater control and reports processor temp in System Tray.

- I tend to agree that there's something funny with the T43's fan control.

Hope that helps.